This wedding dress was worn by two Brighton brides, sisters Floss and Vera McMinn, during the Second World War. The McMinn family moved to Brighton from Castlemaine around 1924, when the sisters were still children. Their father, Horace Henry McMinn, was a fruiterer and greengrocer who ran the Fruit Palace at 123 Church Street. Florence May "Floss" McMinn (1912-2007) married William Thomas Vivian on 3 February 1940 at the Brighton Church of Christ. Her sister Vera was her bridesmaid. Vera Olive McMinn (1918-2006) wore the same dress two years later when she married Geoffrey Walter Holmes on 15 August 1942 at Scotch College Chapel.Cream silk wedding dress with a long train. High neck and long sleeves. Yoke with horizontal pintucks and self-covered buttons. Side zip.wedding dress, 1940s, wartime bride, florence may mcminn, florence may vivian, vera olive mcminn, vera olive holmes

Samuel Bolton of 244 Union Road, Surrey Hills in his 'Druid's Collar' in 1950. Samuel and his son-in-law Patrick Burns were staunch Druids. The Lodge met monthly in the Rechabite Hall in Canterbury Road. The United Ancient Order of Druids (UAOD) was founded in Victoria around 1862. An account is included in Ken James' book 'Surrey Hills Friendly Societies'. This is based on Box Hill Reporter articles and material in relevant files at PROV. Summary: The Surrey Hills Lodge was established in 1890. The trustees were Ernest W Opperman (newsagent), James H Corstorphan (grocer) and Thomas White (plasterer). Opening night was 27 November 1890 and early meetings were held in Br Corstorphan's home in Canterbury Road on Tuesday evenings. By 1891 the ledge had 80 members. Samuel (1978-1951) was a butcher who came to Surrey Hills from Euroa some time between 1926-1931. His shop was at the Mon Albert terminus. After he sold it, it became part of the supermarket on the north side of Whitehorse Road. He was married in 1879 to Elizabeth Beatrice Maker (1881-1963).A black and white photograph of a man with regalia collar around his neck.(mr) samuel bolton, union road, surrey hills, druids, rechabite hall, clothing and dress, united ancient order of druids, druid's regalia, regalia, friendly societies

The Bendigo Caledonian Society is a social club for Scottish descendants still active today.Event program for the Bendigo Caledonian Society. Half fold design printed in gold, white, pink and light and dark blue ink on cream card. Embossed with scalloped edge on cover. Musical program listed inside. Front cover: Bendigo Caledonian Society / Welcome / to / His Excellency the State Governor / and / Lady Gibson-Carmichael / Town Hall / December 8th, 1908 / D. Andrew / Chief / A.C. Forbes / Secretary bendigo town hall, bendigo caledonian society, sir thomas gibson carmichael, lady gibson carmichael, governor of victoria 1908, bolton brothers printers, making a nation exhibition, councillor david andrew, city of greater bendigo events, city of greater bendigo community groups

Prior to the election of female Councillors and Mayors in the 1960’s, the Lady Mayoress role was one of the few ways women could officially undertake civic duties. Mayoresses made important contributions to their local communities through their charity work and as ambassadors for their region on a state and federal level. They also undertook some Mayoral duties on occasions when their husband was unavailable. Monica Cecelia Murray was born in 1910 in Strathfieldsaye and married Thomas Flood in 1934. She served as Mayoress for four terms and died in 1973. Mayoress Flood was president of the St Mary's Past Pupul's Association and a patron of the Bendigo Girl Guildes. Reproduction of photographic studio portrait sitting behind oval mount.studio photography, raymond kelly, city of bendigo mayoress, city of greater bendigo portraits, city of bendigo mayor, mayoress flood, mayor t.r. flood

Photo of the Bendigo Trades Hall in the year 1990.Presented to Bendigo THC With Thanks Arnold, Thomas & Becker 13-02-90architecture, red brick, cars, streetscape

Catholic Mass, was celebrated in the old Kaniva hall prior to the opening of this Catholic church at Kaniva in 1929 it represents the expansion taking place in the west Wimmera.Bone handled, gold plated inscribed ceremonial trowel.Presented to the Rt Rev Dr Foley on the laying of the Foundation Stone Roman Catholic Church Kaniva by the architect Lionel de San Miguel 29-12-29.kaniva, catholic, foley, trowel, church, san miguel, thomas gaunt.

Melton South "The establishment of a settlement of Melton South was induced by the opening of the railway in 1884. This subsequently prompted a number of industries, initially sawmills, and in the early twentieth century, chaff mills. This development coincided with the Exford ‘Closer Settlement’ estate at the beginning of the new century, boosting local population and produce, and the development of the chaff industry which employed many people in the Melton area. (Around 1912 the government had brought out English migrants to settle the Exford estate.) By c.1912 the small Melton Railway Station settlement had a boarding house (probably for chaff or sawmill employees), store, a small church and a hall. The Melton Valley Golf Club originated near the railway station in 1927 (in 1931 it moved to the present Melton links). In 1910 the community had built the large timber ‘Victoria Hall’, which became the focus of community life for several generations. In August of that same year AR Robertson MP and D McDonald applied for the establishment of a school on land set aside for that purpose by the Closer Settlement Board, near the Melton Railway Station settlement. District Inspector McRae recommended that a school for classes up to Grade 3 be established as an adjunct to the Melton State School. And so SS3717, ‘Melton Railway School’, was established in the leased Victoria Hall on 1st December 1911. Thomas Lang, head master at Melton since 1896, was in charge of both schools. As a ‘prep’ school only, it was necessary that the older Melton Railway Station settlement students travel to Melton SS430 at Unitt Street. Since 1912 local residents had been petitioning for the establishment of a separate school at Melton Railway Station on the grounds that it would be better if all children from the one home could attend the same school, and that the Victoria Hall was unsuitable as a school building. As a result an area of 2 acres - Allotment 8, Parish of Djerriwarrh, Exford Estate - was reserved for a State School on 4th March 1914. However the Department wrote that a school would not be established there in the near future, as ‘there is no likelihood in sight that the Railway Station settlement will increase in importance’. Parents persisted with their petitions to the Education Department, claiming that the Victoria Hall was too large, had no fireplace, that teachers were unable to use the wall for teaching aids, and that, being less than 20 metres away from a chaff mill employing 30 men, was too noisy. The turning point came when in 1920 the Hall Committee decided to increase its rent for the hall. In 1920 Head Teacher Lang advised the Education Department to discontinue SS3717 as an adjunct. The District Inspector supported this recommendation, and the schools separated in 1923. In April of that year 41 children, comprising Grades 1-8, moved into an almost completed brick building on the present site. On the 6th July 1923 the official opening of the school took place; after a ceremonial journey from the Hall to the school, speeches were given by the Hon AR Robertson and the Chief Inspector of Education. Everyone then journeyed back to Victoria Hall for a ‘bountiful repast’. (These dates are at odds with the date of 5th March 1925 given in Blake as the date the children occupied the new SS3717 brick school building. ) A teacher’s residence had been purchased for ₤500 in 1923, and the school’s name was changed to ‘Melton South’ in the same year. Even though the older Melton South pupils would no longer have to travel to the Unitt Street school, an additional brick room was still required at the Melton SS430 in that same year. In 1961 a new room was added to the school. In 1972, at the beginning of Melton’s boom as a satellite town, the number of enrolments was 224. The school has since shared in the exponential growth of the town of Melton, and at the time of its jubilee celebration (1983), 524 pupils were enrolled. Victoria Hall, neglected and vandalised, was demolished in 1992. It had been handed back to the Council on condition that it be replaced by a new hall, with the same name, and was commemorated by a plaque. Apart from the 1923 brick school building, and the railway station, none of the principal early Melton South public sites survive. Few early residential sites remain. (Further research will establish whether the house on the corner of Station Street and the railway line was the original teacher’s residence.)" Melton State School "On 17th May 1858 a State subsidised, combined Denominational School was opened by HT Stokes, with an attendance of about 30 children. This school was conducted in the wooden Melton Combined Protestant Church, situated on ‘a creek flat’ thought to be on the north side of Sherwin Street between Pyke and Byran Streets. It is likely that the Church had been established by 1855 and that the first minister was the Rev. Hampshire, who lived in Cambridge House on the Exford Estate. Ministers of the Protestant denominations were invited to hold services there. As there was only one resident Minister in the town (Presbyterian Mr J Lambie), laymen of the various denominations often spoke on Sundays. In 1863 this building was declared a Common School with the number 430. One of its first and most prominent headmasters was John Corr, who served from 1860 to 1864. Most of Mr Corr’s children also became teachers, including Joseph Corr, at the Rockbank school, and J Reford Corr and WS Corr, headmasters and teachers at numerous prestigious private secondary schools around Australia. John Corr purchased land alongside the school and elsewhere in and near Melton, became secretary and treasurer of the new Cemetery Trust, and by July 1861 was deputy registrar of births, deaths and marriages. He walked three miles every Sunday to teach at the Weslyan Sunday School he had established. Despite good reports from the Education Department Inspector, and burgeoning enrolments, the local school committee recommended the dismissal of, firstly, his wife (from the work mistress position), and then him from the headmaster position. Corr saw his dismissal as an attempt to redirect state aid for education from the Combined Protestant school to the support of the Free Presbyterian Minister Rev James Lambie (by one account the owner of the land on which the Common School was erected), whose son-in-law James Scott subsequently assumed responsibility for the school. Rev Lambie failed in his efforts to keep the existing school, which the Education Department Inspector and the majority of Melton citizens regarded as badly situated and badly built. Following a conditional promise of state aid, local contributors in 1868-69 raised ₤72.10.6 towards the cost of an iron-roofed bluestone rubble building 43 ft x 12 ft. This was erected on a new site of 1.5 acres (the present site). The State contributed ₤120 to the new school, which opened in 1870. A very early (c.1874) photograph of the school shows its headmaster and work mistress / assistant teacher (probably James Scott and his wife Jessie) and its (very young) scholars. Similar photos show pupils in front of the school in c.1903, and 1933. In 1877 a second bluestone room costing ₤297 was added and further land acquired from the Agricultural Society (who only needed it two days a year) to enlarge the schoolground to 3 acres. In the early 1880s an underground tank augmented the school water supply and in 1919 a five-roomed wooden residence was added. During this period the school correspondents often compained that the walls of the bluestone buildings were damp, affecting the plaster. In 1923 a brick room 26 ft 6 in by 24 ft with a fireplace and four rooms facing south, was added, and a corridor built to link the three buildings. This served adequately for the next 40 years. The school bell probably dates to 1883. The school also has a memorial gate (1951) to World War One ex-students, and an honour board to the 64 ex-students who served in the First World War. The school roll fell to 42 in the early post war-years, but was boosted by an influx of migrants, mainly from the UK, from the late 1960s. This presaged the boom in Melton’s development, and the corresponding growth of the school, with timber and temporary classrooms added to the previous masonry ones. An endowment pine plantation established in 1930 augmented the school’s fundraising activities when it was harvested in 1968. Part of the site was planted with eucalyptus trees in 1959. Famous ex-students of the early twentieth century included Hector Fraser (internationally successful shooter) and cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman". The Express Telegraph articles about the history of Melton South and Melton State Schoolseducation

Donald Clark Collection. A monochrome photograph of men posed in front of a building c.1890-1895. Caption stuck on front lists the following names of subjects: L to R Standing: __________ , Thomas Robert Davies, Mr. Whitaker, __________ , Jack Cousins, _________ , ___________ , William Clark, ____________ Seated: William Schofield, Daniel J. Duggan, H.C. Bristol, Thomas Ramsay, ___________ , Andrew Mitten. Good quality copy photograph. tarnagulla, people

Donald Clark Collection. A monochrome photograph of members of Tarnagulla Fire Brigade in their uniforms, posed with hose reel outside Burstall Hall, Tarnagulla (demolished in 1980s). Back row: W. Radnell, J. Patterson, F. Cousins, H. Reilly, G.Nelson Centre row: A. Smith, Thomas Page Front row: J. Cousins, W.Smith, J. May, __________, J. Whimpey, ___________ , Joe Radnell, L. Radnell, Bob Abbot. Lady in background: Mrs Spencer. Copy photograph. fire brigade